Government, private sector to co-drive new industrial policy
...NESG pushes resource-based industrialisation agenda
The federal government has said that the new industrial policy will be jointly driven by government and the private sector, integrating key elements such as digitisation, finance, and technology to tackle structural challenges in the nation’s industrial ecosystem.
John Owan Enoh, minister of state for industry, trade and investment, announced that the forthcoming industrial policy will be Nigeria’s first comprehensive roadmap for economic diversification and competitiveness.
He explained that the new framework would integrate key elements such as digitisation, finance, and technology to address structural challenges in the industrial ecosystem.
“I would like to announce that the industrial policy we are putting together will be the first of its kind in the country, and it represents a different way of getting things done.
“This development will bring together all the critical concerns around digitisation, finance, and technology, recognising that government and the public sector alone cannot drive this process. It is more of a private-sector-led effort, and that is why we need the organised private sector to work with us to put all of these together,” Enoh said.
The minister added that beyond the main industrial policy, the government is also developing a set of subsectoral policies tailored to promote competitiveness and sustainable growth in key industries.
“Each of these policies is targeted at ensuring that activities in the subsectors can grow and be competitive enough to meet industry demands,” he said.
He emphasised the importance of policy consistency and coherence to attract investment and sustain industrial growth. “We must be honest with ourselves about the need for consistency. Our policies must be stable, organised, and predictable,” Enoh noted.
Speaking during a presentation titled “A Strategic Framework for Nigeria’s Industrial Future” at the 31st Nigerian Economic Summit in Abuja, Lumun Amanda Feese, CEO of RBI Perse Advisory Limited and Co-Facilitator of the NESG Industrial Policy Commission, said Nigeria’s vast oil, gas, mineral, agricultural, and maritime resources present untapped potential for high-technology and manufacturing growth.
Feese explained that the NESG’s Resource-Based Industrialisation (RBI) strategy seeks to leverage the country’s emerging oil and gas cluster as the anchor for developing new industrial linkages across mining, agriculture, and maritime sectors.
“Nigeria has the potential to become a highly industrialised, high-technology economy if it can harness technological and engineering spillovers from the oil and gas industry,” she said.
The framework emphasises creating backward, forward, and sidestream linkages, from refining and petrochemical production to oilfield services, shipbuilding, and marine engineering, to build a diversified industrial base capable of producing both consumer and capital goods.
Feese drew parallels with Norway’s petroleum-based service and supply industry, where strong local content laws, government-industry collaboration, and sustained investment in research, innovation, and skills development helped transform a resource-dependent economy into a high-tech industrial powerhouse.
The NESG’s proposed multi-sector RBI strategy identifies critical enablers, including infrastructure, financing, skills development, and macroeconomic stability, as prerequisites for successful implementation.
According to the Group, transforming Nigeria’s resource wealth into industrial capacity will not only spur job creation and export growth but also strengthen energy security, promote economic resilience, and advance progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
